Electrification Is Pushing Performance Cars into New Territory—and For the Better

Hybrid is still a dirty word for many car enthusiasts: Say it, and images of dull Priuses immediately come to mind. Electric cars don't have a much better reputation. This is all outdated thinking, of course. Not only is the mainstreaming of hybrid and electric cars happening, but batteries are pushing performance cars into exciting new territory.

For evidence, look no further than this year's Geneva Motor Show: McLaren announced it's committed to developing more hybrids and potentially an all-electric successor to the P1; Koenigsegg showed off the final production of the 1500-hp hybrid Regera; and Morgan–Morgan!–brought an electric 3 Wheeler that it's putting into production by the end of this year.

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Those were the big electric announcements from Geneva, but let's also not forget Acura's hybrid NSX, which will soon reach customer's hands, and Porsche's upcoming Mission E electric sedan, which will very likely spawn a hybrid sports car. What started with the Porsche 918 Spyder, McLaren P1, LaFerrari, BMW i8, and even the Tesla Model S, is now spreading elsewhere throughout the world of performance cars.

Using batteries and electric motors in performance cars presents challenges to engineers and designers, but also unlocks an entirely new set of possibilities.

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Many of the hybrid and electric sports cars displayed at Geneva share similar operating principles but differ wildly in execution. Using batteries and electric motors in performance cars presents challenges to engineers and designers–namely, weight, cooling, and systems calibration–but also unlocks an entirely new set of possibilities.

The extra weight of batteries and electric motors is counterintuitive to making a car that should be tossable in corners or lightning-fast down straights, but almost universally, automakers building these new-generation sports cars agree that electrification adds performance and new experiences that would otherwise be unachievable. Emissions considerations are a factor, too, but most automakers I've spoken to say that electrification was something they wanted to do, not something they felt forced to do.

Joe Windsor-Williams

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"We'd actually made the decision that the P1 was going to be a hybrid early on," said Paul Mackenzie, program director for the McLaren P1. "It was interesting because we knew that we could actually make a hybrid performance enhancing, and back in 2009, [hybrids were seen as] boring."

For that reason, McLaren was initially nervous about calling the P1 a hybrid, according to McKenzie. Once Porsche announced the 918 Spyder would be a hybrid and Ferrari followed with the LaFerrari, McLaren decided the H word would be just fine for describing the P1. In fact, McKenzie found it fascinating that all three carmakers decided to go hybrid independently of each other and along a pretty similar timeframe.

"We all came to the same conclusion, but slightly different," he said.

For McLaren, electric motors afforded it the ability to fundamentally alter its 3.8-liter twin-turbo V8. "Essentially, we could put even bigger turbos on, which had more turbo lag, because we had the hybrid system to fill it in," Mackenzie said. "So, you could actually make the engine worse because you knew the hybrid would do its thing."

Porsche had its own hesitations about going down the hybrid route with the 918 Spyder. Hermann-Josef Stappen of Porsche's German PR department told me that Porsche's senior test driver Walter Rörhl was initially skeptical of the 918 being a hybrid.

Evan Klein

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Röhrl first argued—as many others did—that the 918 should have used just its 600-hp V8 in a lightweight carbon-fiber chassis, rather than add the weight and complexity of electric motors, according to Stappen. Once the car was finished, Röhrl agreed that it was better as a hybrid. Stappen cited the 918's sub-seven minute Nürburgring lap to prove Porsche's point.

After much deliberation, Honda came to a similar conclusion as McLaren, Porsche, and Ferrari for its revival of the Acura NSX.

According to Sage Marie, senior manager of Honda's U.S. PR department, Acura didn't need to make the NSX a hybrid, since it sells enough efficient, low-emission cars to offset a less efficient sports car. Honda realized, though, that there was a decent chance the next-generation NSX could have to be a hybrid, so it decided to make this NSX a hybrid to start exploring the technology and the possibilities it unlocks.

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The NSX is equipped with an electric motor for each front wheel that can send varying levels of power to each. In a corner, the outside wheel receives more power while the inside wheel will receive less, providing a sharper turn-in. The electric motors help the car at corner exit as well. Acura, like Porsche and McLaren, maintains that the NSX is faster as a heavier hybrid than as a lighter non-hybrid car with less power.

Koenigsegg, interestingly enough, still prefers to not call its electrified cars hybrids for fear of signaling any sort of compromise, despite the fact that its new Regera is, indeed, a plug-in hybrid. Christian Von Koenigsegg, the namesake founder of the hypercar maker, daily drives a Tesla Model S P85D and says that he wanted to start offering some of the P85D's appeal–read: hilariously instant acceleration–in his own cars. Whatever you call it, Koenigsegg has built one of the most wonderfully surprising cars we've seen in years with the Regera.

"We're really after the experience of electrified cars," said Jon Gunner, Koenigsegg's technical director. "We really love the immediate response and low-end torque, and we really wanted that responsiveness in our cars."

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But to get that responsiveness meant that Koenigsegg had to add a lot of extra weight without sacrificing the performance the company has become famous for. "We didn't want it to be a compromise," Gunner said. "That's why we developed this direct drive system."

Here's how that direct drive system works: The Regera uses three electric motors in tandem with Koenigsegg's familiar 5.0-liter twin-turbo V8. One electric motor is used for starting as well as low-end torque and regenerative braking. The other two motors are directly connected to the rear wheels. A hydraulic coupling slips at low RPMs for take off, but locks up at around 1500 rpm so the car is in direct drive. There's only a final drive gear.

The engine bay of the Koenigsegg Regera.

Bob Sorokanich

With all those extra parts, the company had to look for weight savings somewhere. "We had to throw out something, so we got rid of the gearbox," Gunner said matter-of-factly.

If Koenigsegg's plug-in hybrid came as a surprise when it was first shown in concept form last year, Morgan's all-electric version of its minimalist 3 Wheeler almost sounded like a joke at first. Morgan says it made the decision to go electric ultimately for emissions reasons, but it's not a direction the company is upset about.

"In a modern world, you've got to consider keeping your emissions down," said Jonathan Wells, head of design at Morgan. "Morgan is all about embracing modern technology to enable us to keep doing things that we believe have a real sort of significance to motoring."

In other words, electrification allows Morgan to continue making and selling hand-built, wood-framed sports cars in the great British tradition. But this tradition dictates that sports cars need to be lightweight, so Morgan had an interesting challenge on its hands replacing the V-twin normally found in the 3 Wheeler with heavy batteries and an electric motor.

Charlie Sixbe

Typically, the company uses hand-hammered, aluminum body panels laid over a wood frame, but that was too heavy for this car. So the EV3 uses carbon composite body panels instead. That kept the dry weight at 1100 lb, which is somewhat lighter than the conventional 3 Wheeler's 1157 lb.

The common theme with all of these carmakers is that electrification not only provides performance and emissions benefits, but it also allows for new solutions and forces creative thinking. Want bigger blowers without the lag? An electric motor can help out with that. Too much weight? Ditch the transmission. Or maybe add some carbon fiber.

If the current generation of electrified sports and supercars indicate anything, it's that we're just starting to see what's possible for engineers and designers. And that should be make every enthusiast absolutely thrilled about the future.